Market share of Structural Engineering software

[masonrygeek]

I didn't see this topic anywhere else on this forum so I thought I would post here.

Is there a report that shows the market share of the various structural engineering programs for buildings? I suppose every computer company would want this information, but we don't have to tell them. From the engineers I work with it seems like Tekla, STAAD/RAM (Bentley), RISA and some other specialized analysis programs are used. Which ones are the most popular?

 

[IRstuff]

https://www.thestructuralworld.com/...l-engineering-software-that-you-should-learn/

Most other market information exists but you have to pay

TTFN (ta ta for now)
I can do absolutely anything. I'm an expert!

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[JoshPlumSE]

Some background on this:
Ages ago, Modern Steel Construction did a structural software survey. We're talking 1998 or so and another one two years later. As I understand it, they discontinued the survey for a couple of reasons:
1) One of the software companies (the name is mentioned in the article) got a copy of one of their surveys and set it out to their entire user base, drastically over estimating their market share. Not that this was unethical in any way. But, it emphasized that some "security" measures would have to be take to ensure the accuracy of future surveys.
2) Some companies that were advertising heavily in the magazine objected to the survey results as it made the company look bad. Therefore, they realized continuing the survey may cost them future add revenue.

Granted, I never talked to AISC / MSC about this, so I'm really extrapolating their reasons for discontinuing the survey. But, the basic gist is that the survey became problematic for them. They'd have to put a lot more effort into it to ensure accuracy. Plus they were facing some pressure / backlash about the results.

During my 16 years at RISA, the Sales / Marketing folks did two or three surveys by mail to test market share and such. The surveys were "blind", meaning they got a list of engineers from one of the trade magazine and sent out the survey using a 3rd party so that the survey couldn't be traced back to RISA. Steps were taken to ensure that only the surveys could not be duplicated / corrupted. To my knowledge, RISA never published these results anywhere. But, used it internally. They used to have it posted in the kitchen in their office.... Heck, I may still have a copy of it somewhere. Though I would never post it publicly without their permission.

Structure (or was it Structural Engineer) magazine tried to do a on-line survey a number of years ago (2005-ish). Theirs was an on-line survey. But, they immediately encountered evidence that the survey results were "corrupted". Not sure how they determined that. But, I believe they canceled the survey rather than re-design it in a way that couldn't be corrupted.

What do I mean by "corrupted"? Well, I don't know for sure, because I heard about it 2nd hand. However, my belief is that there was evidence that some people were filling out the survey multiple times in an attempt to skew the results.

 

[JoshPlumSE]

Oh, I forgot to mention that RISA discontinued their surveys when they could no longer get a trade publication to release a list of subscribers. Privacy issues....


Honestly, I think this sort of survey would be very good for the structural engineering community. But, the software community has proved to be so competitive (or is the term cut-throat) that it's problematic. Truly sad....

If any of the trade publications or engineering associations or such would like to do a survey like this, I have ideas about how to keep the results accurate / secure.